Biography

Kalmar and Puck was a music company founded by the famous songwriting team of the first half of the 20th century Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

Bert Kalmar was born on February 10, 1884 and died on September 18, 1947. He was an American lyricist. Born in New York, New York, Kalmar ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a magician at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life. He never got much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business. He earned enough money as a vaudeville performer to start a music publishing company called Kalmar and Puck.

Harry Ruby was born on October 29, 1895 and died on February 23, 1974. Like Kalmar, Ruby was also born in New York City. Ruby failed in his early ambition of becoming a professional baseball player. Touring the vaudeville circuit as a pianist with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio he met his long-time partner Bert Kalmar.

Kalmar and Ruby formed a successful team until Kalmar's death in 1947. This partnership is portrayed in the 1950 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical Three Little Words starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton.

--From Wikipedia.

Occupations

• Music publishers

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